Search Results for 'Ciaran Tracey'

All 16 runners and riders in this year's Mayo Senior Football Championship have been waiting for this weekend to arrive for a while now. Saturday will see a full slate of action taking place all over the county, with Ballintubber the defending champions the side to beat again this year.

Days like this don’t come around too often and when they do it is something to be savoured and the thousands of Mayo supporters who made yet another pilgrimage to Croke Park made drank up every moment of this one after the final whistle.

Heading to Croke Park to face Kerry used to be the thing that would fill Mayo supporters with a sense of dread in their stomachs - but since James Horan's first stint in charge of the Mayo team, things have swung in Mayo's favour.

Mayo knew that things had to go in their favour elsewhere if they were to make next Sunday’s league final – but they still had to take care of business themselves to make sure they were still in with a shout of a place in the final.

Mayo knew before throw in that they still have plenty of work to do if they are going to stop Dublin’s drive for five All Ireland titles later on in the Summer, but if they were in any doubts they were given another warning of what they will have to do in a few months time to catch the Dubs. 

A Saturday evening in February is never the date to mark your cards for what you will expect to happen later on in the Summer.

Mayo picked up their second win on the bounce in the National Football League on Sunday - with a display impressive performance against last years beaten All Ireland finalists.

The novel ending to last Sunday's clash with Leitrim grabbed plenty of national headlines this week, but on the field there is plenty that Mayo will have to work on over the coming weeks as they ramp up their preparations for the start of the National Football League against Roscommon.

The new year has broken and with it attention has firmly turned towards what the year holds in store for the Mayo footballers.

By the time the ball throws in this Sunday, a total of 1,590 days will have passed since James Horan's last game in charge of Mayo in the All Ireland semi-final replay against Kerry in August 2014 - to this first act of his second coming, when the team takes on Leitrim in the opening round of the FBD League in Carrick-on-Shannon.